Cheeky penguin caught on camera stealing stones from neighbour’s nest

Penguins and criminality don’t usually go together, unless you’re thinking of the one from Batman, but one cheeky penguin has been caught on camera stealing from his neighbour’s nest.

The thieving Adelie penguin lets his neighbour do the hard work, as he looks for the perfect stone to steal (Picture: BBC)

Captured by the BBC’s film crew for the documentary Frozen Planet, the Adelie penguin of Antartica, can be seen grabbing stones from the nest of its neighbour each time the other bird waddles off to find some more stones, totally unaware of what’s happening.

Penguins in the region use stones to cover their eggs to protect them from run-off as surrounding ice melts.

Not only are the stones important for protection but they also offer more chance of a male attracting a female, something highly desired amongst a colony of 500,000 penguins.

Spending four months filming out on Ross Island, the documentary crew went to great length to record the penguin’s mischievous behaviour.

Cameraman Mark Smith and director Jeff Wilson were determined to get the actual incident on film.

‘They’re only a foot and a half tall, so you have to get down to penguin level,’ Wilson told BBC Nature. ‘So poor old Mark, was crawling around and there were adelies constantly looking right down the barrel of his lens.

‘It’s appealing at first, but when it happens for the hundredth time as you’re trying to get the shots you need, you start to lose patience.